Surrounded
by Flightstorm
Summary: If all I have achieved here is that the hangman will earn two pairs of boots instead of one, so be it. At least my conscience will be clear. That may just happen... contains WE and JackWill friendship. An alternate CotBP ending.


_Hello there! _

_This here is a little story about an alternate ending to Cruse of the Black Pearl. W/E, naturally, and maybe the tiniest nudge at J/A… I hope you're ready for some angst…_

* * *

_Surrounded._ That was the only word that buzzed through Will's mind as he stood back to back with Jack Sparrow, a line of soldiers facing them. He stepped in a circle, his sword clinking against the raised muskets of the redcoats, all pointed at him and the pirate. Finally he stopped pacing, feeling a puff of air from Jack blowing the feather on his hat away, but still kept his blade raised as Norrington strode forward, his brows furrowed angrily.

"I thought we might have to endure some manner of ill-conceived escape attempt," sneered the Commodore, "but not from you." Will narrowed his eyes, but did not break his gaze away from Norrington's. Over the man's shoulder he could see Governor Swann gawking at him in disbelief, and just beyond him Elizabeth. Will felt his heart tremble as he saw her horrified face, remembering the words he had spoken to her only minutes ago. Was it possible she still felt the same about him, after he had let her go at the Isla de Muerta?

"On our return to Port Royal, I granted you clemency," stuttered Governor Swann, bringing Will back to his senses, "and this is how you thank me- by throwing in your lot with _him_?" He inclined his head slightly in the direction of Jack, who was cowering behind Will. "He's a pirate!"

"And a good man," said Will stoutly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jack pointing at himself proudly. "If all I have achieved here is that the hangman will earn two pairs of boots instead of one, so be it. At least my conscience will be clear."

Elizabeth, from her place behind her father, gasped silently in shock. They wouldn't hang Will, would they? _No, they couldn't!_ They shouldn't even have been hanging Jack. Her emotions were jumbled, and she tried to make sense of them. Did Will still want her?

Norrington glared at the blacksmith. "You forget your place, Turner," he growled darkly.

Will levelled his chin, staring the Commodore straight in the eye. "It's right here, between you and Jack."

Each word was pronounced with the utmost sincerity, and at that minute, Elizabeth knew what she wanted, and what she had to do. She made a move forward, to stand beside Will, whom she now knew she loved, and clearly state that fact.

That was her intention, anyway. But the Governor grabbed Elizabeth's arm authoritatively, preventing her from stepping any further. She glared at her father in indignation and tried to twist out of his grip. Governor Swann gave her a stern, confused glance and pushed her back behind him. Elizabeth's eyes flitted to Will, who returned the look, seeing what she had tried to do. Slowly, slightly, so slight that hardly anyone else noticed, he dipped his head down to her.

"Then if I have to move you out of the way…" Norrington said, with some reluctance, reaching for his sheath, "… I shall do it."

"Bad move, mate," muttered Jack from behind Will.

"Commodore!" cried Elizabeth, struggling. "Please!"

Norrington didn't answer; he didn't even look at the girl. He suddenly whipped his sword out and thrust it at the very blacksmith who crafted it. Will, always at the ready, brought his weapon up to meet the Commodore's with a clash. Jack dove out from behind Will and slipped between two surrounding soldiers before they even knew what happened. However, two more were on the alert, and they lunged for the pirate, roughly pushing him to the stone with all their military training. Jack struggled, but to no avail; the soldiers hoisted him to his feet, pinning his arms firmly to his sides.

"… but now _that_ was a nice move on your behalf," commented Jack to the soldiers, but the nervous look on his face did not match his nonchalant tone.

Will and Norrington were now engaged in a duel, their rapiers flashing in the sunlight. Norrington swiped at Will's feet, but the blacksmith leaped upward nimbly. Crossing blades once again with the Commodore, he gathered up all his strength and pushed his opponent forward, down to the ground. Almost afraid of what he had done, Will whipped around and saw Jack held securely between the two redcoats. Unable to register what had happened, he stood there dumbly- and that was when a soldier took the chance.

Elizabeth, from her forced position behind her father, saw the redcoat advancing upon the unaware blacksmith. "_Will!_" she shouted, but the warning came too late; the barrel of a musket was rammed into Will's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. In pain, Will doubled over and collapsed to his knees.

"No!" shrieked Elizabeth, shock and fear making her voice a few notes higher than normal. At last she tore away from her father's clutch and ran towards her fallen blacksmith. Soldiers were surrounding him once again, the muzzles of their guns pointed at him; Norrington had gotten up and was standing with the panting boy at his feet.

Will, gulping to regain air, saw Elizabeth running towards the soldiers, her eyes ignited with fire. "_No_," he gasped, his voice barely audible. His eyes were wide and pleading as he stared at Elizabeth, telling her to stop. She saw the look and froze, unable to believe it. Will, his face creased with pain, shook his head faintly back and forth, his eyes never leaving hers.

"William Turner, you force me to do something I never thought I would do," Governor Swann said heatedly as he strode towards the ensemble. "I… I'm afraid your actions have proven you unworthy of clemency, and I shall have to relinquish my protection."

"Father!" Elizabeth yelped. "That means you'll hang him! You wouldn't!" Her voice was stricken with horror.

Her father took no heed. "You will hang alongside Jack Sparrow today," he said to Will, his voice a mixture of anger and regret.

Elizabeth's heart froze, and for a minute, no words came out of her parted lips. Will closed his eyes and bowed his head, his damp brown curls hanging down his cheeks. He was hauled to a standing position by the redcoats, who shoved him forwards, knocking his hat to the tiled stone.

"… R-ready the nooses," Norrington ordered Gillette, who was just behind him. His dark eyes never left Will as the young man was led away, a recaptured Jack Sparrow in tow.

"So, back to the gallows again? Can't exactly say that's my favourite place in the world," slurred Jack to the soldiers, who paid him no mind. He glanced wistfully at a blue and yellow parrot soaring overhead towards the ocean- towards his Black Pearl, he knew, which was waiting for him… but he'd never come back. He'd never get to feel the rough black wheel again, the rotting planks beneath his boots, or the salty wind ruffling her sails. The captain wondered who would take over the lovely ship now, the ship in which he had fought ten years to regain. _S'funny_, he though suddenly. _For some reason or other, I wish I could've said goodbye to Anamaria…_

Elizabeth, meanwhile, had come to her senses and was trying to claw at her father in fury. Governor Swann, in horror, tried to control her unexpected blows.

"Elizabeth, it's duty," he stammered as he grabbed his daughter's wrist.

"Duty!" She twisted away from her father and ran to Norrington, who was staring at her in shock.

"Commodore- _James_, please! You have the authority- stop this!"

"I never thought a blacksmith would mean so much to you," Norrington said in dismay.

Elizabeth felt a last glimpse of hope fade in her chest. "Don't let this happen!" she tried once more.

Norrington paused. "I must," he said finally.

Elizabeth, feeling moisture gather beneath her eyelids, ran away from the Commodore and threw herself at Will, being held by the soldiers. One stepped back in surprise and let go of Will's arm; this arm the boy wrapped around Elizabeth in the closest gesture the two had ever shared.

"I'm sorry, Will," gasped Elizabeth in a shuddering breath. "For everything."

Will felt his heart break as her body quaked beneath his one-armed embrace and lightly touched his mouth to the top of her head. "No," he whispered. "_I'm_ sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't enough for Jack. For you."

Elizabeth choked, and tilted her head up to meet his lips. Their breaths barely muddled before the soldier bustled her out of the way and grabbed a hold of Will again, interrupting their second attempt at a kiss. Will was once more dragged onward, but this time his head was turned back towards Elizabeth, and a soft smile was illuminating his face. For at last, at that moment, he knew.

* * *

"… You both shall be hung by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your souls," finished the man, rattling off a list of crimes once again, only with the addition of another name… 

Will Turner and Jack Sparrow were standing side by side on the gallows, with only a space between them. Both just stood there, unmoving, listening to the steady smacks of the drums, knowing there was no chance of escaping the nooses that were about to be looped over their necks. There was no use in struggling. No use in fighting.

A circle of coarse rope was slipped over Will's head, and he quietly accepted it. He turned to face Jack as best as the noose would allow; Jack, with another braided twine around his neck, tipped his head at the blacksmith and blinked. Will knew from that small gesture that, even though he had failed to set him free, the pirate was grateful for the attempt. Even that slight notion cheered the convicted boy, and he nodded to Jack.

"To the death, eh?" grinned Jack.

"Every step," Will replied, only to be hushed gruffly by the hangman. The great burly lump of a man wasn't exactly pleased at having his client escape earlier, but now he'd be getting knickknacks from two people, among them Will's red cape, which had been snatched off his shoulders earlier.

The rope scratched tighter, and the beats of the drums quickened. A panic started to rise up in Will's chest, and he looked around the square almost wildly at the faces of the crowd, the crowd that had gathered to see their local blacksmith hang alongside a notorious pirate; a double treat for them. Their separate features blurred before Will's eyes, and he could not fathom one from the next. But one visage in particular stood out, beautiful, sad, and scared.

Elizabeth.

Just seeing her, standing there when his life was about to end, reassured him that every second, every day of it, just being near her, risking everything to save her, finally telling her of his love… it was all worth it. Oh, how he wanted her to know that! Death, really, wouldn't be so bad- just knowing her, loving her, having held her- it was enough to last a lifetime of a hundred years.

His eyes met with hers, their gaze connecting in a bond of love so powerful, so pure it was enough to sweep the boundaries of death and society away. Her gorgeous brown eyes; it was the last thing Will ever saw before the drums stopped, the trapdoors fell open beneath his and Jack's feet, and the rope dug into his throat cruelly, cutting of any chance of air. This time there was no thrown sword to save either of them.

And thus did Will Turner and Captain Jack Sparrow draw their final breaths, two comrades together to the last.

An eerie silence descended upon the crowd.

And a single tear coursed down Elizabeth's cheek.

* * *

She strode alone on the battlement that night, her eyes staring blankly out onto the black waves of the ocean, glinting with the frosty light of the gibbous moon. Her foot brushed something, and she glanced down to see Will's feathered hat, knocked to the ground only hours before. Slowly she bent down to pick it up, and then continued to elegantly cross under the pillars to the edge of the wall, fondling the feather, white and fluffy as a cloud, the whole time. Finally she paused, right on the spot where the Commodore, the very man who had agreed to send Will and Jack to their deaths, had proposed to her. 

Elizabeth gulped back a sob and clutched the hat to her stomach. _Why?_ She screamed in her mind, cursing the sea. _Why did Will have to be taken from me when he wasn't even mine yet? Why do you torture me? I know you have him, when he should be with me instead!_

Will's body had been silently slipped into the engulfing waves, left to sink to the dark bottom. Jack's had been carried to a cage, to rot in the salty breeze.

Elizabeth had watched them take the pirate's corpse away. It was horrible, seeing the once-animated body stiff and unmoving, not like the living Jack at all. His red bandana had been taken, letting the dreadlocks fall into his tanned face, the beads and trinkets torn out. Every button on his clothing was gone, as well as every effect- the compass, pistol, and all. But there was one thing they could not steal from Jack- his tattoo. The blue silhouette of a sparrow would forever fly across his skin, even when the ocean spray had whispered it away, an emblem of freedom and spirit. They may have broken the sparrow, locked him in a cage, but they could not take his wings.

And Will… Elizabeth had spent a long moment looking at his body, taking in every detail, everything that made him Will Turner; his once-warm brown eyes, the stubble of his chin, his mouth… She placed her fingertips gently on his cold lips; lips that she had never got to feel against her own. Her slender hand stroked his cheek, along his jaw line… pale and cool. She smiled softly, remembering how he used to blush whenever he looked at her. Now she knew why.

When they had lifted Will's body, Elizabeth had made no struggle, no attempt to stop them. She had not even cried.

Now, here, alone, gazing out onto the ocean, where Will now rested, she felt a sudden urge to join him, to dive down, down, into the water, never to come up. But something stopped her; something had spoken to her, some soundless voice from the stars.

_Don't._

She raised her head to the expanse of ebony above her, where the tiny white pearls glittered, blue-tinged clouds swirling around them. Just then they seemed brighter than they ever had before, winking out at her, urging her to press on. A kind of strength seemed to float down from them into her broken soul, healing it with their twinkling sparkle.

One day, Elizabeth decided, she would cross those stars. One day she would dance beyond them, to a sky where she and Will could finally be together. The time would come. Not now. But it would happen.

One day, the stars would surround her.

* * *

_Forgive me, dear readers, if you've happened to come across this. No more sorrowful stories for me, eh? I'm not very good at writing them, I fear… perhaps I should try more fluffy endings, in which Will, Elizabeth, Jack, and Ana all live happily ever after. That's the way it should be, anyway._


End file.
